There is a provocative piece in Aug 20 2012 issue (by Connie Guglielmo) of Forbes on Apple’s R&D, countering Pharma (and Tech) trend of decentralizing such efforts. Besides creating many high-level jobs and even more $B, is this creating a … Continue reading →

Another provocative piece in Forbes that implies the cost of developing a new drug could be as high as $12B!! This approach has a number of flaws (as does: “Best Drug Companies.. “) All produce (provoke?) some interesting insights from commenters. Funny how … Continue reading →

Matt Herper in Forbes’ “the Medicine Show” posts a point of view by Bernard Munos on what firms have done best in terms of approved drugs since 1995. The link is here (http://onforb.es/zb6xgu), as are my comments on this provocative topic. … Continue reading →

A recent posting on Derek Lowe’s “In the Pipeline” presents a dismal view of the returns on R&D in Pharma. BCG had included a graph (from Bernstein Research) of the trend of new molecular entities (“nme”) per $B spent over … Continue reading →

Note: The following focuses on New Medical Entities (NME’s.) These are defined as the novel, initial member of a chemical family for a drug. The data is derived from the public FDA database on approved drugs for past years. From … Continue reading →

Poor performance of Pharma R&D seems to have never left the newsservices or the hearts of all in the industry. It is interesting to see the stories of 2011 echoing back for a decade. Here are some current “news” items … Continue reading →

Take a look at the posting and discussions on Derek Lowe’s excellent blog: http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/12/13/big_pharmas_lost_stock_market_decade.php#comments Another version of his chart is here, showing the last two years .vs. Lowe’s decade view. It reveals the same result: the industry has underperformed the … Continue reading →

While I have been using the name “R&D Returns” for years, I welcome this article from McKinsey. Here, they call attention to the value of balanced R&D architecture and management. Some of the sea-change tools cited on my home page here … Continue reading →